The Insider: Daily Terrorism Report

ByABC News
October 22, 2003, 4:49 PM

Oct. 22 -- [[[[insert new tease para daily]]]]]

America

United States

U.S. Thinks 9/11 Planner Killed PearlAuthorities once questioned such claims, but they now believe the Al Qaeda operative is the man who slit the journalist's throat. (LA Times)http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-pearl22oct22,1,4570565.story?coll=la-headlines-world

Terror Memo Cites DoubtsRumsfeld Questions on Terror Progress The United States has no yardstick for measuring progress in the war on terrorism, has not "yet made truly bold moves" in fighting al-Qaeda and other terror groups, and is in for a "long, hard slog" in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a memo that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld sent to top-ranking Defense officials last week. (USA Today)

Pentagon to Probe Remarks Made by General

The Pentagon is launching a formal investigation into statements by a high-ranking Army officer that cast the U.S. fight against terrorists in religious terms, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld announced on Tuesday. (Washington Post)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61301-2003Oct21.html

Editorial: The General Who Roared

Lt. Gen. William Boykin, who has called the war on terrorism a "Christian battle" and disparaged Muslims, should be dismissed from his post. (NY Times)

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/22/opinion/22WED2.html

US Erecting a Solid Prison at Guantanamo for Long Term

The detention facility here for prisoners captured mostly in the Afghanistan war is increasingly taking on a permanent air as the authorities are building a hard-walled traditional prison alongside the corrugated metal units that have housed detainees for nearly two years. (NY Times)

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/22/national/22GITM.html

Laptops screened at Guantanamo base

U.S. troops are being ordered to surrender their laptop computers for security sweeps 72 hours before leaving the Guantanamo base in Cuba, officials said Tuesday. (LA Times)

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gitmo22oct22,1,3923283.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

Moussaoui can't represent self at appeal

A federal appeals court Tuesday denied a request from terrorism defendant Zacarias Moussaoui to represent himself at a Dec. 3 proceeding on his access to al-Qaeda prisoners. (Washington Post)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60778-2003Oct21.html

Georgia says database is too invasive

Amid cost and privacy concerns, state officials backed away from an antiterrorism database that officials initially considered joining — making Georgia the sixth state to abandon the Matrix project. (LA Times)

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-terror22oct22,1,575237.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

Passenger tracking at airports on holdCarriers say system will violate privacy, without increasing safety significantly. (CS Monitor) http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1021/p02s01-ussc.html

Patriot Act misunderstood, senators say

Democratic and Republican lawmakers said yesterday that the USA Patriot Act has drawn unmerited criticism from civil libertarians at both ends of the political spectrum who have targeted it with complaints over unrelated issues. (Washington Post)